Food and New York City III

English-learners, recent New Yorkers write about food in New York. Collection of stories from the De Gustibus column in #TheARNICObserver.

From The ARNIC Observer, Spring 2015

Eat Healthy, Eat Seafood
by Xiaoxi Zhang

Do you like seafood? It is healthy, full of nutrients including protein and Omega 3, and looks good and tastes wonderful. If you want to eat fresh seafood it is best to choose a restaurant like Fuleen Seafood Restaurant in Chinatown located at 11 Division Street in New York City. It opened in 1996, and has been called one of the top ten restaurants in America and Canada for 2015.

Seafood is healthy food. It is a good source of protein with no saturated fat and few calories. It is a valuable part of the diet for almost everyone. Also, seafood is the richest natural source of Omega 3 essential fatty acids.

Research has proved Omega 3 has many benefits to our health. Not only can it protect against cardiovascular disease by reducing the levels of bad cholesterol and lowering blood pressure slightly, it also prevents children from getting asthma and lowers the risk of prostate cancer. There are many other benefits too numerous to mention. It is a necessary element for our body, and we can only get it from food, especially from fish such as salmon, sardines, carp, and tuna.

At Fuleen Seafood Restaurant, keeping fish and shellfish alive is not easy. You must put them in tanks with salt water and at different temperatures and aerate the water with a special machine. An Instant Ocean Hydrometer is used to set the water at a suitable temperature and with the correct rate of salt. Fish, shrimp, crab, and lobster are ordered while they are swimming in the salty, bubbly water. This is as fresh as seafood can be.

Also at Fuleen, fish can be prepared in eight different ways. It can be Sautéed with Ginger and Scallion, Sautéed with XO Sauce, served mild Cantonese Style (fried with egg, minced meat, and tempeh), Steamed with Sliced Garlic, Sautéed with Black Bean Sauce, simply Steamed, or prepared spicy Harbor Style (dry fried with chives, garlic, and red pepper). For a $5 supplement, you can order one fish prepared in two styles.

Most seafood feasts your eyes in vivid colors like red shrimp and salmon, shiny brown lobster, dark sea cucumber, lustrous gray, white and black clam, and sunny yellow conch. Dishes are presented decorated with vegetables such as carrots, radishes and cucumbers sculpted into fanciful shapes such as a flower, a bird or an animal, or even a historical figure. To end the meal, platters arrayed with vibrantly hued and artfully carved apples, pears, and oranges or watermelon, grapes, and bananas look graceful and taste delicious.

I like seafood. I like healthy seafood. Eating in a seafood restaurant is a wise choice. It may be a little expensive but fresh, healthy, and delicious food is worth it.